A kindhearted Cambridgeshire woman is looking to track down an elderly war veteran poppy seller after a chance encounter led her on a journey to Thailand.

Lesley Serrao Da Veiga, 49, met the man selling poppies in March High Street on Remembrance Day last year when she went to purchase a poppy cross to commemorate the death of her uncle.

After sharing that she was taking the cross to the Kanchburi war cemetery in Thailand, where her uncle Arthur George Heffer was laid to rest after being taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese, the pair were struck by an extraordinary coincidence.

Lesley, who grew up in Fordham, recalls: “He said his brother-in-law was also buried there but nobody from his family had the opportunity to visit and pay their respects.

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“I purchased a second cross and said I would be honoured to do this on his behalf.”

The grave of the poppy seller's family member

Lesley, who promised her father before he died she would find her uncle’s grave and pay respects on behalf of her family, is now desperately trying to track down the gentleman to let him know the promise she made to him too, has been ‘fulfilled’.

Both Lesley’s uncle Arthur and Private F.C. Seamark were in the The Cambridgeshire Regiment during World War Two, some of whom were captured and made to work on Thailand’s ‘death’ railway.

The railroad between Thailand and Burma, saw the Japanese enlist POWs and Asian labourers, working them to death to built 250 miles of track over 15 months.

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After the war the division became part of the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment in the 60s.

Lesley by her uncle's grave

Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Philip Cox said: “The Cambridgeshire Regiment have always been revered and held in the highest esteem. The men of Cambridgeshire have always flocked quickly to the colours in time of war and raised two reserve Battalions.

“All forces were defending the island of Singapore by 30, 31st January when the Japanese started their main attack.

“The subsequent bitter fighting is one of the most intense of WW2 and all Allied forces in Singapore surrendered on 15th February 1942. Of the 2,100 All Ranks of the 1st & 2nd Battalions of the Cambridgeshire Regiment, 20 died in UK prior to 1941, 220 died in Malaya and Singapore, and 512 died as prisoners of war.”

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For Lesley it’s vitally important to pay respects to sacrifices the Cambridgeshire Regiment made to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today.

Both men died as prisoners of war building the Burma railway the Bridge over the River Quai - Private Heffer was just 23 and Private Seamark 31.

War memorial at Kanchburi war cemetery in Thailand

“It was not really spoken about in my family because there was a lot of sadness,” said Lesley. “ But I promised my dad that if I ever had the opportunity to go I would - it’s part of your family makeup and history.

“So when the man said nobody from his family had been, I said I’d buy another cross and if I can find the grave I’ll gladly do it for you and get some pictures developed and post them.

“As a family we didn’t have them for years so I know how precious it is, because I know how far it is for the family not to have been and done it themselves.

“My uncle was captured on the fifteenth of February when Singapore fell and that’s why we went on February 15 this year because it was 75 years to the day they were captured.

“It would mean a lot to pass on the pictures and to tell him somebody has been.”